Zomato announced on Monday that it will soon begin with 10-minute food delivery - a feature that many on social media labeled "unnecessary" and potentially dangerous for the company's delivery partners. Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO of Zomato, announced the service on Twitter, saying that it would start in Gurugram next month. Acknowledging the backlash that followed when Zomato-backed Blinkit (then called Grofers) announced a similar 10-minute delivery initiative last year, Zomato's statement began with the promise that it would not put pressure on delivery partners to deliver food quicker.
"We do not put any pressure on delivery partners to deliver food faster. Nor do we penalise delivery partners for late deliveries. The delivery partners are not informed of the promised time of delivery," Mr Goyal's statement read.
Despite this promise on Zomato's behalf, the 10-minute instant delivery move was mercilessly trolled on social media. On Twitter, where #Zomato has been trending since the announcement last evening, many people criticised the Zomato Instant food delivery service by using memes.
Along with the safety of delivery partners being compromised, people also worried about the quality of food that would be delivered in 10 minutes.
Zomato said the quick delivery would rely on a dense network of "finishing counters" which will be located in high-demand customer neighbourhoods, and that time optimisation would not happen on the road or put lives at risk. These finishing counters will each house best-selling items -- about 20 to 30 dishes -- from various restaurants based on demand predictability and hyperlocal preferences.
Cyber security expert Jiten Jain was among the several people who worried that Zomato's 10 minute delivery promise would make the job of delivery partners tougher.
Ajay Awtaney, founder and editor of Live From a Lounge, also worried about the 'catches' that instant delivery would entail.
Explaining why his company decided to step into the instant delivery market, Mr Goyal said: "I started feeling that the 30-minute average delivery time by Zomato is too slow, and will soon have to become obsolete.
"If we don't make it obsolete, someone else will," Mr Goyal said, adding that "innovating and leading from the front" is the only way to survive in the tech industry.
